Pay him because he'll give the Red Sox stability in the middle for another seven or eight years.

Pay him because he's only 29.

Pay him because he's "only" made $30 million playing for the Red Sox [through 2013] - which is about $4.5 million less than the Red Sox paid Carl Crawford for his time and toil in Boston.

Pay him because he's already taken one for the team by signing a six-year $40.5 million deal, pushing his eligibility for free-agency back until after he's 32.

Pay him now even though you don't really have to pay him until the Winter of 2015-16 [he's under contract through 2014 and the Red Sox have an option for the following season] because his price won't be lower than it is right now.

Pay him because no one in Boston ever wants to see him return to Boston in another uniform, like homegrown talent such as Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Kevin Youkilis, Carlton Fisk or Sparky Lyle. Never mind Babe Ruth.

Pay him because once you lock him up and give him a defined cost/value, he'll be easier to trade if it comes to that point some day.

Pay him because Boston has always loved scrappy ballplayers and athletes and he's 5-8, 165 pounds soaking wet, fitting right in with the likes of Bob Cousy, Nate Archibald, Wes Welker, about 3/4ths of the Bruins this past season, Rajon Rondo...OK maybe not all of them.

Pay him because he personifies everything the Red Sox, their fans, and the players themselves see when they see the best in themselves.

Pay him because he can do his job at second base as well, if not, better than anyone else.

Pay him because in the crazy world of baseball salaries, he'll soon be a steal at $16 or $20 million a year.

Pay him because it would be the biggest no-brainer since Bobby Valentine was fired.

Dustin Pedroia and the Red Sox are talking about a contract extension.

There's not much to discuss. The Red Sox hold a 1.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays after Sunday night/Monday morning's back-and-forth, frustrating but satisfying 8-7 win over the Yankees. The Red Sox took two out of three from New York and left the Yankees wallowing in fourth place, a long seven games out of first. Pedroia went 1 for 6 Sunday/Monday and his average fell to .310.

But he head-buttedMike Napoli and something rubbed off. Napoli had hit a three-run homer in the fourth that probably broke a windshield - on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Napoli blew a shot to ice the game in the eighth by hitting into a double play with the bases loaded before ending this 4 hour, 46-minute affair with a walkoff blast to dead center field in the 11th. It was Boston's ninth walk-off win of the season.

Something special is happening at Fenway this season and no, the Red Sox didn't pay me to say that.

The last four pitchers the Red Sox used to shut down the Yankees were Matt Thornton, Koji Uehara, Drake Britton and Pedro Beato. Not even Nate Silver could have seen that coming in June.

Pedroia still has more walks [52-50] this season than strikeouts and had a .391 on-base percentage before Game No. 100. The Red Sox are 60-40 on July 22. Pedroia is a major reason why. In 2012, the Red Sox got their 60th victory on Aug. 24, which was Game 126.

While Pedroia's a product of the Red Sox scouting department and the Sabremetric/Moneyball mind-set, his best attributes are the ones that never show up on the stat sheet.

He's old-school money ball, always playing his best ball when money is on the line.

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